Page 29 of Blood Moon Heat

Why was I resisting? I could keep her safe. I was one of the most feared vampires in this realm—and in many others.

Because she makes you weak.

Growling under my breath, I snatched up my glass and downed its contents, but it wasn’t what I fucking wanted.

A familiar heartbeat reached out to me suddenly, beating fast, frantic, and my head shot up in time to see Mina enter the club on the other side of the room.

“How did she get out of her room?” I snapped at Pretender.

The younger vampire quickly searched his pockets. “My keys, they’re gone. She fell…she grabbed for me, she—”

“Are you saying she picked your pocket?” I scented him. “Then why can’t I smell her on you?”

“Because I changed.”

“Wise.” The mood I was in, I would have torn him to fucking shreds if I’d scented her on my ward. There is no way he would have given her his keys willingly. He would never betray me that way. It didn’t matter that he’d been a loyal servant to me for many years, with my lack of control, there would have been no stopping it, and he knew it.

“I’ll take her back to her room,” he said.

I shook my head, stopping him before he took a step. “Leave her, but stay close, make sure no one touches her.”

Pretender nodded and slipped around the edge of the room.

Sitting back, I watched her take in the club. Her pulse was wild, and over the scent of lust and blood, hers reached out to me, coiling around me tight.

My little doll thought she’d outwitted me, but I realized as she stood there, blushing and wide-eyed, that what she was seeing in this room was having an effect on her. Her control was nowhere near as strong as mine, and maybe seeing others drink and fuck would make her hunger for my vein. Maybe it would have her begging for my touch. I wanted that on a primal level, for my female to want me, to need that from me, with a ferocity that consumed me.

She still hadn’t seen me, but I could tell she was searching for me. As she got closer to where I was sitting, I stood and slipped into the shadows, moving around the edge of the room so I was standing behind her.

So many eyes were on her now, so many lustful, hungry eyes.

No, that wouldn’t do at all.

Closing the space between us, I grabbed her slender throat from behind and pressed my mouth to her ear. “Not enough fun for one night, Lalka?”

She sucked in a startled breath but didn’t try to pull away. “I—I was looking for you.”

“Were you? And why is that?”

She was panting now. “Because I wanted to spend some time with you.”

I didn’t know what game she was playing, but if she wanted to play, I’d play. I curled my other arm around her waist and walked her forward, to the back of the club, where my booth was in shadows.

Sitting, I pulled her onto my lap, so her back was pressed to my front. I expected her to try to wriggle away, to fight me, to tell me I wasn’t permitted to touch her, but she didn’t. She sat where I put her, posture rigid.

I gently took hold of her jaw. “You went to all this trouble to escape your room and get into my club because you wanted to spend time with me, yes? Because you wanted to see what was going on in this room? Well, I’m in a giving mood, Mina.” I pulled her more firmly against me and pressed my mouth to her ear. “So you’ll sit here, and you will watch.”

Ten

Mina

I fought not to squirm.

The scent of blood was making me crazy, and I couldn’t look away from all that was happening in the room around me.

“What is this place?”

“A feeding club. This is where blood drinkers and donors meet and make mutually beneficial transactions.”

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